Our border crossing from Ecuador to Peru turned out to be another adventure. For those of you who read our report about the border crossing from Belize to Guatemala, this one turned out to be even worse. We had booked a bus ticket from Cuenca in Ecuador to Piura in Peru via Huaquilles, the Ecuadorian border town. Arriving in Huaquilles we were told to change bus, which was supposed to arrive in about half an hour. Together with 2 other Austrians and one Peruvian girl we waited at the bus station when after a few minutes the Peruvian girl came up to us and told us that there was no more bus to Peru; the one we booked had already left as it was full. The next bus would leave the next day - no option for us.
What they suggested was to find a taxi to take us to the border, from there take another taxi to Tumbes (the first Peruvian town across the border), and from there take a bus to our final destination of Piura. But first of all we had to get a refund for the already bought bus ticket, not an easy task either but manageable. We then convinced a school bus driver to take the 5 of us to the border about 3km away. First queue at the Ecuadorian border to get our exit stamp, another queue at the Peruvian border to get our entry stamp. An hour later we're finally ready to move on, when we're presented with the next question - 1) take a taxi to the next town for $10 per person or 2) walk over a certain bridge over the border and get a cheaper mini bus for $1 per person? As we were a little bit confused with the options we asked the Peruvian girl for advice and she recommended the cheaper option. So, we get back into the school bus and all of a sudden he drives us back to Ecuador and drops us off where we started in the first place..!?!?? The Peruvian girl tried to explain what was going on but our Spanish wasn't good enough to get the entire story. So, here we are back at where we got kicked out of the first bus, in the middle of a busy market but at least with two stamps in our passport - officially we already entered Peru, now we just had to actually get there physically.
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| Our minivan to Tumbes |
Over the next couple of days we make our way to Huanchaqo, a small seaside town in the North of Peru. We pretty much hate it and everything else we've seen from Peru so far. Garbage is piling up next to the road, the landscape is all dry and all desert and we just really miss Ecuador.
The first nice thing we experience is our day trip to ancient ruins built by the Mocha civilisation; we visit Huaca del Sol & Huaca de la Luna and Chan Chan, which are entirely built with adobe bricks. Chan Chan was the largest pre-columbian city in South America and was home to about 30,000 people.
From Huanchaqo we took the night bus to Lima where we spent 3 days before our booked tour started. As we weren't big fans of Peru anyway so far, we also weren't really impressed by Lima. It has a nice city centre with beautiful colonial buildings and a funny little park with lots of cats but other than that...hmmm.. maybe we were also suffering from a little travel fatigue..? Hence we really looked forward to the following 3 weeks of organised travel which would require not much thinking, no haggling with taxi drivers, no running around with our backpacks to find the best and cheapest hotel rooms, no planning what to do next, no trouble crossing borders (we thought..)...
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| Lima Waterfront - nice..NOT :/ |
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| Lima City Centre |
Saturday, 30th of November, together with our 14 other travellers (12 Aussies & 2 Kiwis) we hopped on a bus to Paracas where we visited Balleras Islands or 'Small Galapagos' as the Peruvians call them. And although we've just been to the Galapagos and were obviously quite spoilt with the amazing wildlife there, Balleras islands were still a great way to spend the morning, millions of birds, seals and penguins, pretty nice!
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| Penguins at Balleras Islands |
Next stop Pisco tasting! Pisco is pretty much like Grappa made of a special grape and Peru's national drink. most common way to drink Pisco is as a Pisco Sour, a cocktail mixed out of Pisco, Lime Juice, sugar and egg white - yum! We finally started to like Peru ;)
The following day we experienced one of our Peru highlights - a flight over the Nasca lines. The Nasca were a Pre-Incan civilisation who created mysterious lines, geometric shapes and figures in the Peruvian desert. Up until today nobody really knows why and how they made the lines; flying over this vast strech of land full of those geoglyphs was truly spectacular and just added to the mystery behind them. We loved it.
Then it was time for another night bus to Arequipa, where we had a delicious Empanada breakfast (another traditional Peruvian dish) and paid a visit to 'Juanita', the Ice Maiden. Juanita was a young Inca girl who was offered as a human sacrifice about 500 years ago and who was found very well preserved on top of a nearby vulcano in 1995. She's now on display in a museum stored in a -20°C glass container. It's not allowed to take photos in the museum, so for a photo of her just google 'mummy juanita' - very, very creepy!
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| Misty Volcano |
In Arequipa we sampled some more traditional Peruvian food, Guineapig (very fatty), Alpaca steak (yum) and some frog juice. A live frog, killed in front of our eyes, skinned, dropped in boiling water and blended with lots of spices and some honey; apparently very healthy...
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| Guineapig anyone? |
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| Preparing delicious frog juice |
Arequipa already lies on 2300m and the next day we drove into the Colca Valley where we stayed in Chivay on almost 4000m. Althoug we chewed our coca leaves, drank coca tea, ate coca cookies and coca candies almost everybody suffered from a little headache to more severe symptoms like vomiting and nausea. Coca leaves are classified as a drug in all countries worldwide except Bolivia and Peru due to being the best source to produce cocaine. Chewing coca leaves doesn't do much except giving you a little bit of a numb mouth and more energy. Unfortunately they taste so disgusting that it was almost unbearable to chew them longer than a few minutes.
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| Coca Cookies & Coca Tea |
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| 4900m above sea level with great views of the surrounding volcanoes |
With another night bus (the last one on our journey) we made our way to Cusco - the former Inka capital built in the shape of a Puma. Unfortunately Pizarro and the conquistadores destroyed most of Cuscos Inca buildings and used only the remains as base for their churches and colonial houses. Cusco is quite touristy but absolutely beautiful. We used the time in Cusco to shop for some last hiking equipment and to enjoy some last luxuries (shower, toilets, bed) before our 4 day hike to Machu Picchu.
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| Beautiful Cusco |
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| At the markets |
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| Off we go! |
This hike was one of the absolute highlights of our entire trip! Exhausting but soooo rewarding!
We started our hike close to Ollyantaytambo at KM82 on Wednesday morning, December 10. While we only carried our small day bag, our group of 16+2 guides had more than 20 porters who carried the rest of our stuff, our sleeping bags, tents, tables, chairs, all food and kitchen equipement and anything else we would need for 3 nights camping. Each one of them carried up to 25kg and to see them walk (or sometimes run!) past us was very humbling. By the time we reached the camp, everything was set up (incl our own tents) with our dinner already cooking in the kitchen tent. Incredible!
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| Having a shower :) |
The first day was quite an easy hike, only 12km with a tiny bit of rain towards the end. The second day started at 5am followed by 9km of constant walking uphill until we reached the so-called 'Dead Woman's Pass'. This was definitetly the most exhausting bit of the trail and the altitude of over 4000m made it a real challenge; there's just not enough air to fill your lungs. You really have to experience it to understand how it felt. But of course the moment you reach the top, with everybody cheering you on was just amazing. And we were so lucky with the weather, not a drop of rain, sunshine all the way to the top with incredible views over the valley. The last 2km that day were downhill which turned out almost as exhausting as walking uphill, uff :/
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| On top of Dead Woman's Pass - 4200m |
The third day was with 16km the longest but also the most beautiful day with lots of stops to check out Inka ruins along the way; we were definitely getting close to Machu Picchu! We were all getting very excited. Therefore getting up at 3am on the last day wasn't hard at all. Another 6km early morning walk up to the Sun Gate from where we caught the first glimpse of Machu Picchu while the sun was rising! Wow!! This was definitely my most favourite moment of the entire hike, we all very so very happy!
Next stop after Machu Picchu - Lake Titicaca, where we visited the Floating Islands entirely made of reed. People still live on those islands and live in a traditional way they've lived in for centuries. Now, of course, tourism helps them earn money. We then spent the night with a guest family in Luquina. We first played soccer against the locals, then they dressed us up in their traditional wear and then we had to dance with them.
Before heading back the next day we had to help them with their daily chores. For Stefan and I this meant herding out the sheep and plowing the field manually. Hello blisters :/
6:30am the next day we left with the bus towards La Paz in Bolivia - another border crossing which we hoped would be better than the previous ones we had. Well, this one reached a new level of horrible as it took us almost 4 hours to get through. The queue was immensly long with only 1 person working at border control. Our planned lunch at 1.30 in La Paz turned into a 7pm dinner. Oh well, nothing can really shock us now :)
Our very last day on the tour before heading back home to Austria was spent mountain biking the so-called Death Road close to La Paz, known to be the world's most dangerous road mostly due to the many car and truck accidents. Nowadays mostly mountain bikers drive on the road and the risk is very small. We started at 4600m and descended over 60km to 1200m. Due to really bad weather the views could've been better but it just made the whole trip all the more fun.
Back in La Paz we went out for one last meal and drinks with our group before heading to the airport at 1.30am to catch out flight to Munich. Our journey will be continued on the 15th of January where we'll head back to Perth to attend our Citizenship Ceremony. Once this is out of the way, we'll fly to New Zealand for 6 weeks until mid March.
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